HannStar Display Corp (
"The construction of the 6G plant indicates that HannStar is expanding into manufacturing bigger panels for TVs as the advanced plant will be used to cut 32-inch and 37-inch glass substrates for TVs," HannStar chairman Chiao Yu-chi (焦佑麒) said yesterday.
Chiao made the remark at a ground-breaking ceremony for the company's new plant in the Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學園區).
The liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panel player, a major supplier of 15-inch panels used for personal computers, began diversifying its products last year after the construction of its first fifth-generation plant was completed, he said.
Hannstar Display, which trades on the Gretai Securities Market (
The company's new 6G factory is expected to begin mass production as soon as the end of next year, HannStar president Wu Tai-kang (吳大剛) said.
He declined to reveal their investment figures and the full capacity of the new fab.
"Our evaluation is still under way and we haven't reached a final decision," Wu said.
Giving a rough idea of the spending plan, Wu told reporters that a 6G fab with capacity of 90,000 panels a month would cost up to NT$90 billion.
The 5G factory is scheduled to begin mass production next month.
Wu said shipments in January and last month fell short of expectations due a disappointing defect rate.
In January, HannStar shipped about 392,000 units because of fewer working days, but the volume was expected to increase 5 percent last month, driven by strong demand, Wu said.
"A shortage in panel supply is a fact as we can see flat-panel giant Samsung Electronics Co aggressively seeking support from outside," he said.
Some of HannStar's customers even agreed to buy the company's 15-inch panels at a higher price of US$245 per sheet, which is close to the US$260 when the price peaked last year, according to the company.
As long as demand remains strong, Wu said he did not expect to see a supply glut in the second quarter.
Shipments are expected to take off during the April-June period after the 5G plant ramps up production, he added. Seventeen-inch, 19-inch, 23-inch and 28-inch panels will be the company's major products in the first half of this year, he added.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) investment project in Arizona has progressed better than expected, but it still faces challenges such as water and labor shortages, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Yeh Chun-hsien (葉俊顯) said yesterday. Speaking with reporters after visiting TSMC’s Arizona hub and attending the SelectUSA Investment Summit in Maryland last week, Yeh said TSMC’s Arizona site turned a profit of NT$16.14 billion (US$514 million) last year in its first full year of mass production. “TSMC told me it was surprised by the smooth trial run of the first fab, which has left the company optimistic about the project’s outlook,”
RSS